Highlands & Islands MSP, Rhoda Grant, welcomes the news that the Ocean Great White rig, en-route from Singapore to the Kishorn Yard in Wester Ross is the start of a new engagement between the yard and the oil and gas sector. The yard which has been dormant for a while was last in use in the 1990s when the support structures for the Skye Bridge were built there. In 1978 the Kishorn Yard was utilised in the construction of the largest moveable man made structure in the world when the Ninian Central platform was build. At that time up to 4000 people were employed on the site.
Rhoda said ” This is excellent news and I hope this first major contract will herald a new beginning for the Kishorn Port which was a company formed in 2008 by Ferguson Transport and Leith’s Scotland. As well as the building of the iconic Ninian Central, other smaller projects were undertaken, but this is the first major contract for 40 years. If the senior Management at Kishorn Port can attract contracts such as this ,then there is a real possibility that the local economy around the scattered communities of Wester Ross will prosper again with new found jobs, which in turn attract more workers and then more money is spent in the area locally.
” This is positive news and further supports my plea some months ago for the upgrade of the road that extends between Achnasheen and Kishorn (A890/A896). If we are to promote the availability of this location as a future specialist refurbishment yard for the oil and gas sector we have to do something about the infrastructure, starting with the roads.
The rig is being made ready for a drilling programme early next year West of Shetland.
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